The story covered the fact that John Arne Riise had joined in a project with some teenagers in Liverpool’s Anti-Tobacco Youth Campaign who had mocked up a picture of how super fit footballer Riise could look if he decided to take up a long-term smoking habit. This was the resulting image:

The mocked up image gives Riise pallid lined skin, rotting teeth, bloodshot eyes and scars around his mouth. Scary stuff, except that no-one ever actually ends up looking like this and the mythical mock up (and mock up it is indeed) does not resemble anyone known to anyone, alive or dead, unless, of course, they are partial to eating chocolate in a messy fashion or perhaps sucking exhaust pipes.

This little project, carried out in Liverpool, which has become a hotbed of antismokerism and nanny statism thanks to its Liberal Democrat dominated council, was designed to coincide with the government’s raising of the legal age to purchase cigarettes from sixteen to eighteen.

Many of use are now completely blasé to this kind of scare mongering and false representation of smokers but it raises some serious issues about the demonisation of tax paying citizens which has long ago verged into a form of harassment and bullying. Bullying, if proven, I shall point out, constitutes a criminal offence.

It is interesting to consider too, the minds of the people who produce this filth, but then maybe we should ask ourselves if anyone looks at all as disgustingly unhealthy as the mock up of Riise. I searched high and low and eventually came up with this piggy looking individual.

“Aha”, I can hear you say, “now this has got to be the face of a slobby 50 a day smoker. Look how overweight he is, he plainly doesn’t look after his health; and look at that horrible pocked and aged skin. And just look at that black mouth and the glimpse of yellow teeth! And, and, the whites of his eyes are yellow. This is a prime example of a 50 a day smoker!”

It may surprise people to know, however, that this porky bladder of lard is, in fact, none other than our Chief Medical Officer, Liam Donaldson, an avid anti-smoker. And in case you think this is just an unlucky bad photo, you’d be wrong for here is another.

Oh my goodness, just look at that pallor, what a ghastly looking chap. If this is what years of anti-smokerism does for someone then it’s definitely not for me. Moreover, who is this fellow that he has the effrontery to lecture anyone about their health. Physician heal thyself, Dr Donaldson.